Vincent's Babysitting Service
by WishingDreamer5
Summary: Cloud and Tifa want to spend some well deserved time together, alone. However, all hell breaks loose when Vincent Valentine is left to babysit on Denzel and Marlene. Needless to say, the worst part of the day actually starts when a certain mischievous, ebony-haired ninja decides to pay him a nice visit. Honestly, that woman had a knack for showing up at the most random moments...


**A/N: Written for Nuingarien, who wanted to see Vincent Valentine babysitting the kids. This is a sequel to my one-shot "You Forgot, Didn't You?" You won't miss that much if you don't read that first, but if you like Cloti (or rather, my interpretation of the couple), you might prefer looking at that first. :P It's not that much, but as usually, my thoughts wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it all down. This also happens to be my entry for FF7-RP's February Contest on deviantArt.**

**Special thanks to outofthesun, my lovely beta reader. :)**

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_~ Apparently, Cloud hadn't been joking when he told them that Vincent would be babysitting on them for the weekend. ~_

* * *

When Vincent Valentine entered the room, which was at the same time as Cloud and Tifa were leaving to spend some well deserved time together, a deafening silence followed. Apparently, Cloud hadn't been joking when he told them that Vincent would be babysitting on them for the weekend. Then again, Cloud was hardly the type to ever joke about such stuff (or anything else for that matter).

Denzel had kind of gotten to know the man after being cured from the Stigma, but he would be lying if he denied that he was kinda scared of Vincent. After all, he _did_ resemble a bloodthirsty vampire more than anyone, what with that crimson red cape, far too pale skin, penetrating gaze and long, silky smooth black hair. Okay, so maybe the perfect hair had nothing to do with it, but it didn't exactly make him look less scary, either. That was why he felt a little vulnerable, being only surrounded by bar stools and tables...

Marlene, on the other hand, actually seemed to like him for some reason. It became apparent to him when she ran over to him and hugged him with a loud, "Mr. Vincent!" much like he was her favorite uncle, or something.

Vincent had no problem with hugging her back. No one ever did. After all, Marlene was the epitome of all that was cute and pure. Her big, questioning gaze could turn even the toughest warriors into a puddle of goo. She was Seventh Heaven's little angel.

To be honest, Denzel didn't really know what to make of that move, so he decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, only because Marlene seemed to trust him enough to glomp him. He fervently hoped that he wouldn't regret this decision.

"You haven't had dinner yet, have you?" the man asked, breaking the somewhat awkward silence.

Marlene shook her head, as she continued to stare up at him curiously.

"Then I should make us something to eat first," Vincent started slowly, his calm voice deep. "Do you like pancakes?"

At this, the girl's face brightened even more. "Yeah, I _love_ pancakes! And Denzel loves them too, right, Denz?"

Vincent's gaze travelled to Denzel now, who just nodded briefly, hoping that he didn't looked as uncomfortable as he felt. It was enough for Vincent, though, and he made his way to the kitchen. Marlene had apparently decided to keep him company, since she followed the tall man, chattering about all the silly little things that she'd seen today. Vincent didn't seem to mind that much, even if he stayed quiet most of the time. Then again, all Marlene really needed was a listening ear at the moment, and someone who hummed at the right moment. Vincent seemed to be particularly good at those tasks, while busying himself with cooking.

Soon enough, he became acquainted with the unnaturally clean kitchen and the smell of sweet pancakes wafted through the air, leaving even little Marlene in awe. "They smell as good as Tifa's!" she exclaimed enthusiastically. "For someone who doesn't have a phone, you're a pretty good cook!"

This earned her a rare smile. "Thanks for the compliment... Could you show me where Tifa keeps the syrup?"

Eager to help the mysterious man, Marlene jumped off the kitchen dresser and opened one of the white cabinets.

For the longest of times, it was blissfully silent in Seventh Heaven, save for the girl's enthusiastic chat about rainbows and pink waterfalls...or something akin to that. Then, however, the quiet was rudely broken when Denzel announced that a green marble was stuck somewhere in his body where it obviously didn't belong. How (or why) he even got it that far up his nose was a mystery to even Vincent, but of course, things like this only happened when_ he_ was the one taking care of the children. Denzel started to remind him more and more of Cloud, too. They both were clueless and kind of dense, with a perpetually lost look on their face...

"Don't worry. We'll get that out in no time," he assured the boy.

_...Hopefully._

Thank Shiva he had the right _tools_ at home. Or at least, he _thought_ that Cloud had them stored somewhere in the garage. It was a typical guy thing and quite honestly, he didn't want to think what would happen if he was wrong about that.

Only a few minutes later, just when he thought that he had everything under control again, Marlene let out a pained yelp, before promptly starting to cry. Her babysitter swiveled around, his crimson cape following him like his shadow.

"What happened?"

To his surprise, she replied with, "M-my finger got caught b-between the r-refrigerator d-d-door!"

Sure enough, her pinky was bleeding a little, a proof that it had to hurt like hell.

Vincent suppressed a sigh, cursing his ill luck. "Don't cry. We just need to put it under cold water. Then I'll go find a plaster to put on it. Everything will be fine."

With that, he turned on the tap and held Marlene in his arms, as he let the cool water pour over the fresh wound. Thankfully, her quiet sobbing died down soon enough and Vincent couldn't help but let out a relieved breath. At least _something_ went fine today.

* * *

Unfortunately for the dark-haired man, the misery didn't end there. There was another little surprise that the children had in store for him by bedtime...

"Tifa always tells us a bedtime story, so that we can have nice dreams," Marlene said, hopefully, when Vincent tucked them in as good as he could.

"Does she?"

A bedtime story? How old were they, five?

He sighed, closing his eyes. Then he opened them again and started looking around their small bedroom for inspiration. Not that the beds and cupboard could help him get any ideas...

When he'd come up with a nice fairytale, he started, "Once upon a time, in a place far away from here, there was a kingdom..."

To think that he would have to babysit them tomorrow for the rest of the day was quite…unsettling. He made a mental note to never do Cloud a favor again.

* * *

When he headed downstairs again, he heard the distinct sound of a door opening and closing again. Curious as to who dared to enter the bar at this time of the evening, he quietly made his way to the entrance...

Where he stood face to face with a very familiar figure. She was grinning up at him and her eyes seemed to gleam mischievously, which didn't promise any good.

"Hiya, Vince! Watcha doin' here? Looking a little stressed today."

Vincent suppressed a groan. Honestly, this woman had a knack of showing up at the most random moments.

"Yuffie, _not now_. I just managed to get those two to sleep."

Needless to say, this didn't have the desired effect on the ebony-haired woman. "Hey! That's not how you talk to an awesome ninja who can kick your ass, Mist- _Mmph_!"

He had been quick enough to silence her by putting his hand over her mouth. "Keep it down, would you? You have no idea how long it took me to get them in their beds."

And quite frankly, he wasn't looking forward to telling them another bedtime story if they woke up. Though he had to admit, they did look like little angels when they were sleeping.

But Yuffie would have none of it, so she bit his hand, forcing him to let go. "What in the world do you think you're doing?" he hissed, starting to lose his temper.

She merely stuck her tongue out at him, putting her hands on her hips. "That's what you get! Don't say I didn't warn you."

Vincent was about to give a witty retort when he heard voices coming from upstairs. At once, he realized that Denzel and Marlene had woken up and were about to head downstairs again.

Someone up there really had to hate his guts...

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**A/N: So that's probably not how things will go if Vincent really had to play for babysitter (except for the Yuffie part lol), but at least I tried... right? :)**


End file.
